Electronic devices, including portable electronic devices, have gained widespread use and may provide a variety of functions including, for example, telephonic, electronic messaging and other personal information manager (PIM) application functions. Portable electronic devices include, for example, several types of mobile stations such as simple cellular telephones, so-called smart telephones, wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs), and laptop and tablet-style computers with wireless capabilities. Some electronic devices have an integral physical keyboard comprised of individual keys that a user employs to enter, for example, alphanumeric content such as text.
Portable electronic devices such as PDAs or smart telephones are generally intended for handheld use and ease of portability. Smaller devices are generally desirable for portability. A touch-sensitive display, also known as a touchscreen display, is particularly useful on handheld devices, which are small and have limited space for user input and output. Many such devices can selectively display a so-called virtual keyboard on a touch-sensitive display that a user can employ to again enter alphanumeric content.
Many users prefer a physical keyboard as compared to a virtual keyboard. As one approach to meeting this preference, physical keyboards that temporarily overlay the touch-sensitive display are known in the art. Known approaches in these regards, however, tend to serve only the singular purpose of facilitating the entry of alphanumeric content.